Let us be realistic; none of us regardless of business type and industry is Brexit ready. How can we be ready when we do not know what Brexit actually means to our business? Whether you are personally for or against Brexit is irrelevant in in the business context. Change will happen as a result of the Brexit vote and we need to be prepared so that our businesses can withstand this knew unknown situation.
The uncertainty sandwich
We are faced with an uncertainty sandwich in which the uncertainty filling sits between slices of hope and fear with a side order of speculation. One way or another we have to eat and digest this sandwich and it is up to the individual organisation to find the best way of doing so.
At this point in time we do not know when Brexit will happen, what form it will take and if indeed it gets derailed before we even get there.
Hope for the best and act now to prepare for the worst
The odds of doing any proper and effective preparation against this wall of uncertainty are not great and it leaves us with two choices; do something or do nothing.
Doing nothing is sometimes the right option, but not in the Brexit case.
Change is already happening and as organisations we have to do something. So what can we do?
Brexit could be a major threat to your business’s survival or it may be the biggest opportunity you have ever had - and of course anything in between. Either way, you need to be able to perhaps withstand export tariffs, increased costs and heaps of paper work, or you may need to ramp up your organisation to effectively cope with an increase in business without loss of service and quality. It would be tragic to lose a great business opportunity because you were not prepared.
WBS suggest that you go for the do something option and take stock of your business; the way it looks and performs today and compare that with where you think you need to be as the Brexit process progresses.
Brexit will be a process and the challenges and opportunities you face will change as decisions are made and negotiations won or lost at the political level.
Take stock and take action
The bottom line is that your business needs to be as strong and flexible as at all possible. This would be the case in any event, but now it is vital to take stock and take action to fix as many issues and weaknesses in your organisation as possible. This will achieve two things.
1. You will immediately gain an advantage over your current competition
2. You will better placed to roll with the punches – hard or soft – as and when they land.
The Y2K bug disaster never happened; the world did not come to an end. Similarly, Brexit is not the end of the world – it is the beginning of a new world and change is already underway.
There will be two questions to answer: What could you do to prepare? And what will you do to prepare.
The WBS Group stance
We recommend that you start by booking a no obligations one-day senior management workshop facilitated by WBS where we start the process of understanding your current state and the direction and action you could take and will take. After the workshop you decide if you want to progress with our independent assessment of your business which will deliver recommendations for improvement projects which we can assist you implement.
In the first instance, contact us for an initial no obligations conversation.